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Marcel Reif: "When I'm so far that I realize I want to censor myself, then I'll stop."
Photo:
Voigt / imago images / Jan Huebner
It must be strange times when Marcel Reif doesn't feel like talking.
After all, Reif's purpose in life is language.
For 30 years he has been earning his living with it, for a long time as a football commentator at live games, now as a commentator for the world of football.
Every day in the »Bild« format »Reif is live« and always on Sundays in the talk show »Doppelpass« at Sport1.
Reif could take soccer games to a higher level.
Because he saw things that many other commentators failed to see.
Because he prepared meticulously.
Because he, who played at FC Kaiserslautern when he was young, knows about football.
And because his formulations sometimes looked artistic, but never artificial, as if they had been learned by heart.
Sometimes he was able to remain silent at exactly the right point because he knew when what was happening on the pitch was simply better and more powerful than any sentence he could have.
"Yes, but not about the topic," says Reif, when you try to reach him, so that, of course, you can talk about "the topic".
It's about the Coronaparty-arrest-denial-fines-saga about Gladbach's Breel Embolo and what Reif said or better: implied as part of his "Reif ist live" talk.
After the 2-2 draw at VfB Stuttgart, the Swiss striker Embolo drove back from Swabia to Essen that night.
There he is said to have participated in a corona party that was blown up by the police.
According to the authorities, Embolo fled to a nearby apartment via the roof of the café.
The police went into chase and found Embolo alone in the apartment, hiding in the bathtub.
The player denies the party part, he watched basketball alone in the apartment.
His club stood behind him, but now imposed a "heavy fine," as it was called.
"I could well imagine such a little rub down"
It's a pretty crazy story, with almost daily twists and turns and new details, made for the boulevard.
The "Bild" newspaper reported on it with devotion, digging up all the alleged wrongdoings from Embolo's life.
Of course, Reif should also comment on the topic in his daily format.
In his broadcast, Reif said: »In my time it was still like this: There was a certain internal hygiene in the cabin, to put it very nicely.
According to the motto: ›Coach, could you just go outside for a moment?
We need five minutes. 'And then you make the music loud.
And then the person was told, with relatively clear, non-verbal means, what works and what doesn't.
I could well imagine such a little rub.
There's snow outside. "
The accusation is now that Reif would like the players from Borussia Mönchengladbach to do violence to their teammates in order to settle the matter.
All kinds of people on Twitter were outraged by the statement.
"At 71, I don't have to make the headlines anymore," says Reif on the phone.
But that is exactly what happened.
Focus.de writes of a “verbal faux pas”, t-online says “Reif causes outrage with Embolo slogan”, the “sports buzzer” even asks: “Call for violence?
Renewed fuss about statements by Marcel Reif. "
"It upsets me terribly when someone, as has happened now, endangers football because of such recklessness."
Marcel Reif
Reif, who actually doesn't want to talk about it, is so annoyed by what he thinks is artificial excitement, and then talks for a long time.
"I'm not going to let the wave of outrage drive me," he says.
"I don't have to."
He thinks it is ridiculous that someone seriously trusts him to encourage a crime.
He can understand that you can interpret his statements that way and misunderstand something, he says.
"But you don't HAVE to understand it like that!" How his statements were twisted, the gaps in them were filled, he feels as bad will.
But how did he mean it now?
“I'm about the big picture.
It upsets me terribly when someone, as has happened now, endangers football because of such recklessness.
Also the special role that he has right now that they are allowed to play at all.
If someone breaks the rules of the community, then the community should regulate it.
And very loudly and very clearly, ”says Reif.
“It's much more important than a club statement or a fine.
You just do that for the public image.
But this was a breach of trust that was committed. "
"Very clearly", again a blank space that can be filled when commenting on a game of what is happening on the pitch, but in this case again invites you to speculate what is meant by it.
Just like the term "non-verbal".
Reif says: »Look up what is under non-verbal in the Duden.
›Not with the help of language‹.
I also talked about body language.
You have to build yourself up in front of the boy, then he'll notice what is meant.
I used to play football myself and in our dressing room it would have been made clear: You won't do that again.
Otherwise you won't even get a pass out there. "
Marcel Reif (right) at a talk show with Oliver Geissen, Günther Jauch and Franz Beckenbauer (2003)
Photo: DPA
The features section praised and loved Reif in the past, no text about Marcel Reif can do without the reference to his Grimme Prize ("A goal would do the game good").
He was considered the intellectual in the alleged proll sport of football.
Reif never resisted this exaggeration, but neither did he choose it.
Reif says that he is doing exactly the same thing today for the "Bild" newspaper and the "Doppelpass" as he used to.
He hasn't changed, he just still loves to talk about football and everything that has to do with it.
“I don't do it for the money anymore, then I would have done something wrong in my career,” he says.
Even if you hear that the job is far from being a volunteer in terms of pay.
But one can hardly blame him for making money with his work.
The problem, however, is the arbitrariness of his statements.
He used to travel as chief commentator the day before a Champions League game, buy the local specialist press, read up, talk to coaches and other experts, and in the stadium he had an expert at his side to support him.
With his knowledge he could have filled dozens of games; he had the luxury of putting the best of this pool into the 90 minutes of playing time.
A small window of time, but in which one could see that there is a whole world of knowledge behind it.
“Next time I'll make it clear that I don't mean beating.
But it's no fun when you always have to include an instruction leaflet. "
Marcel Reif
It's different in his new role, the signs have reversed.
At »Bild«, Reif comments on the whole world of football every day.
There are other topics in demand on the boulevard than just top European football, there it goes a little below the belt.
Anyone who gets involved in this needs a special sense of style in order not to get hits from time to time.
That happened to Reif now, through his own fault.
At one point during the phone call, Reif said about his formulation: “Next time I'll make it clear that I don't mean beating.
But it's not fun if you always have to include an instruction leaflet. ”Later the conversation comes back to this point, the question is whether Reif draws any conclusions from the whole thing.
“I hope,” he says, “I'll say the same next time.
When I'm so far that I realize that I want to censor myself, then I'll stop. "
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